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October 23, 2015 at 09:25 AM
I had the pleasure of visiting the monthly meeting of the FPA of Greater Rochester New York last week. As a past president of its predecessor chapter (at the time, the Upstate New York Chapter, which included not only Greater Western New York—Buffalo and Rochester—but also Syracuse and Binghamton, was among the ten largest chapters in the nation), I try to stay up-to-date on the goings-on of the group.
Of particular interest at this meeting was the speaker, my good friend Don Trone, who offered an intriguing title for his talk: “The Dishonest have Discovered that the Best Camouflage is the Cloak of a Fiduciary Standard.”
Don said quite a few interesting things, several of which may find themselves in future FiduciaryNews.com stories, but I wanted to relay one idea he shared that struck me.
He mentioned that, when he started in the business, fiduciary as a concept represented a ceiling to aspire to. In anticipation of the Department of Labor adopting its proposed fiduciary rule, Don predicted fiduciary will soon become the new floor in the business.
It reminded me of something I wrote in an BenefitsPro article a few weeks ago: “When everybody’s a fiduciary… no one is.”
Fiduciary as a new floor represents a double-edged sword, as ERISA attorney Stephen Rosenberg of the Wagner Law Group in Boston implied in an interview published this week, (see “Exclusive Interview: ERISA Attorney Stephen Rosenberg Says Litigation’s Legacy is Improved Plan Design,” FiducairyNews.com, October 19, 2015).
Let me put this another way: Fiduciary will soon become, if it hasn’t already, the equivalent of a 4-year college degree.
About a generation or so ago, it became apparent that one needed a 4-year college degree to have the best chance to place yourself on the conveyer-belt of a solid career. As more and more of the high school aged population realized this, the demand of college seats skyrocketed.
